Electric fault delays relaunch of CERN collider after two-year refit

(Reuters) – Scientists at Europe's CERN research centre have had to postpone the imminent relaunch of their refitted 'Big Bang' machine, the Large Hadron Collider, because of a short-circuit in the wiring of one of the vital magnets.

“Current indications suggest a delay of between a few days and several weeks,” a statement from the world's leading particle physics research centre said on Tuesday.

Engineers had been expected to start on Wednesday pumping proton beams in opposite directions all the way round the two 27-km (17-mile) underground tubes in the LHC, closed down for the past two years for a refit.

That would have been the prelude to the start of particle collisions in late May at twice the power of those in the LHC's first run from 2010-2013.